Anti-nuke stir escalates Kudankulam project cost by Rs 1446 cr

The government informed the Rajya Sabha that the expected completion cost of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) Unit 1&2 will be Rs 17,270 crore, as against the original estimate of Rs 13,171 crore.

In December, the government had informed Parliament that the completion cost of the KKNPP 1&2 was Rs 15,824 crore of which Rs 14,122 crore had been spent till September 2011.

As per the original plan, the first unit was to be commissioned in December 2007, which was revised to mid-2010. This was further revised to September 2011 when anti-nuclear protests broke out in Kudankulam.

The first unit is now expected to be commissioned next month and the second unit in March next year.

Work on the nuclear power project came to a standstill for nearly eight months as anti-nuclear activists laid siege to the site disallowing engineers to enter the plant.

An agreement was reached with the protesters to allow 100 maintenance workers to enter the plant daily for carrying out maintenance work.

In reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy said the expected completion cost of KKNPP 1&2 was pegged at Rs 17,270 crore.

A back of the envelope calculation deducting Rs 15,824 crore spent till September last year from the revised expected completion cost of Rs 17,270 crore gives a figure of Rs 1,446 crore.

The NPCIL, which is building the nuclear plant in collaboration with Atomstroyexport of Russia, had claimed that it was losing Rs five crore per day due to the protests.